Effort
to Stop Congress from Weakening Organic Now Underway
(from February 26, 2003)

Consumers, organic companies, and trade groups are weighing in from
across the country to turn back a provision in the Appropriations Bill
passed by Congress on February 13, 2003 that pollutes and weakens the
legal standards for organically labeled food, according to food safety
advocates. As reported in Daily News last week, in its $397 billion
Omnibus Appropriations Bill, Congress attached a last-minute rider allowing
an exemption to the requirement that organic livestock be fed 100% organic
feed. The language allows farmers to feed livestock conventional feed
if organic feed is more than twice as expensive and still label the
meat as organic.

Senator Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), the original co-sponsor of the 1990 Organic Foods Production
Act, announced at the time that he would launch an effort to repeal
the rider and restore the intent of the law. A repeal bill is expected
to be introduced by Senator Leahy and Representative Sam Farr (D-CA)
today and they are seeking co-sponsors in both the U.S. Senate and House
of Representatives.

Beyond Pesticides
is asking people to contact their two Senators and one Representative
to sign-on as a co-sponsor of the legislation being introduced by Senator
Leahy and Rep. Farr. The bill will stop the weakening of the organic
label by repealing Section 771 of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Members
of Congress should be encouraged to sign-on and support the legislation
even after the bill is introduced today, as part of the process of building
support for passage.

Consumers and supporters
of organic food are a powerful force behind a $10 billion organic industry.
They showed their influence in Washington, DC, when in 2000 a record
number of people stopped a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to
allow in organic production genetically http://www.ota.com/SUAaction.htmengineered
organisms, sewage sludge, and irradiation.